Prometheus
by Beastbot X
Summary: A new character is introduced into the Beast Wars, but is he more than he appears to be? First in my Beast Wars series.
1. Part 1

Prometheus, Part One  
by Beastbot

The loudness of this planet startled the creature. It shook its head to clear the constant chattering of the animals out of his head. He cleared some green foilage out of the way with its claws- and saw a small stasis pod in the jungle clearing.

_The pod is here,_ the creature thought. _Just like Tarad- no. I must not even think to refer to him as his given name. I must think like these metalloid creatures if I am to become one soon. Just like UNICRON said it would be. Let's see. What beast form has this damged pod selected? A toucan? No, this just won't do._

The creature pressed a few buttons and changed the selected form to a half mantis, half lizard creature. He then held his hand out and a Predacon chip materialized in his palm seemingly out of nowhere. He took out the Maximal programming chip and threw it on the ground. He then inserted the Predacon chip into the pod, and it suddenly clicked and whirred.

_I must now insert myself into the pod if I am to include myself on the back of this transformer. _

The creature morphed into a small flying creature with large pincers and no legs, with only a small piece of flesh connecting his appendages. He then disappeared out of thin air.

* * *

"Megatron, a pod has landed in Sector Pi! Should I go after it?" Dinobot Transmetal 2 turned around to his leader as he waited for an answer.

"Yes, of course! And remember to bring a Predacon reprogramming chip with you. Waspinator, Quickstrike, go with him."

"Wazzpinator get him first!"

"I don't care who gets him first, as long as there's some Maximal keister to kick when I get there!" said Quickstrike, as the trio transformed to Beast Mode as ran out of the base.

* * *

"Hey, eh, Optimus, got a pod signature here in Sector Pi. You want me ta- what the slag!? It's already got a Pred energy signature on it!" Rattrap stammered.

Optimal Optimus trudged over the the main viewing screen. "Is there any other Predacon signatures nearby?"

"About five klicks away, but they're heading toward it, not away from it!"

"Hmmm.... that can't be. There must be energon interference or something. It is about eight klicks away."

"Eh, according to this, it ain't."

"Well, you, Cheetor, and Blackarachnia go and check it out. Keep in touch with us in case more Predacons come."

"Whatever you say, feahless leader."

Rattrap swung out of his seat and ran to get Cheetor and Blackarachnia.

* * *

The oranges and purples of the sunset shone over the lush tropical jungle, making it seem very odd and alien. The trio of Predacons did not seem to notice this, however, as they ran or flew through the habitat toward the stasis pod about half a klick away.

Waspinator, about five meters above, was the first to see it. "Wazzpinator seez it firzt! Wazzpinator will make bot new hornet!"

As Waspinator sped ahead, Quickstike shook his head and looked up at Dinobot, who was in hot pursuit of the bug. "Flyers. Why'der theys think theys so special?!"

Dinobot merely seemed annoyed by the question, and did not answer.

As they neared the stasis pod, they saw Waspinator in robot mode, scratching his head.

Dinobot and Quickstrike stopped as soon as they got near the pod, and transformed also.

"What is wrong?" Dinobot asked sarcastically. "Can you not even figure out how to insert a Predacon chip?!"

Waspinator turned to look at the Transmetal II. "Wazzpinator confuzed. Already Predacon chip in pod!"

Dinobot sighed and look at the stasis pod closer. To his surprise, Waspinator was right!

"But this is impossible!" Dinobot cried. "How could-"

Waspinator heard a sound of a distant rocket jet, and turned toward the noise just in time to see a missile blast his head several meters away. The rest of his body fell limp to the ground.

"We're under attack!" DInobot yelled as he dove behind nearby rock.

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHA!" screamed Quickstrike as he stood beside the pod and shot several blasts at the incoming three Maximals.

"Dis pod is ours, slag bag!" said Rattrap, transforming into robot mode from his rat rover and firing a few more blasts at the rock which Dinobot was hiding behind. Blackarachnia and Cheetor made it toward the clearing a few moments later, and transformed into robot mode as well.

"Not...if I can help it!" yelled Dinobot as he fired a pulse laser from his eye at Rattrap, striking him right in his optics and incinerating them.

"MY OPTICS! I CAN"T SEE!" screamed Rattrap as he stumbled over a tree stump and went into unconsciousness.

The remaining two Predacons and two Maximals started a firefight, neither one seeming to get an advantage on the other.

A stray laser beam struck the stasis pod, and knocked the pod into operation.

Moments later, a small mantis with reptilian feet emerged from the pod amist all the laser battle. The two sides stopped firing briefly to see whether the new transformer was a Predacon or Maximal.

"Buzzclaw, terrorize!" said the mantis. Gears and hydraulic pumps clicked and whirred as he transformed into his robot mode. He did look insectoid, alright, but he had a huge "backpack" on his pack that looked odd. It looked like his wings and mantis pincers connected by a small piece of flesh.

Blackarachnia sighed. "Just what we need, another enemy." She then opened fire on the small creature. Buzzclaw noticed the shot ahead of time and dove behind a rock, just missing the blast. The firefight then almost immediately resumed.

"Yer kind...of a small...bot." said Quickstrike to Buzzclaw, pausing as he fired shots. Quickstrike quickly noted the light oranges and purples that covered most of his body, with the exception of his mantis pincers and feet. He thought briefly for a moment that maybe the computer purposely gave him the same colors as the sunset, the same time of day the small bot was made.

"Yeah, I know...hey, why are you firing on these guys?" asked Buzzclaw.

"'Cause it's fun....why don't you...get out yer...weapons and... start firin' on them?"

"Weapons?"

"Yeah, weapons... ya cowpoke. What...are they?"

Buzzclaw looked down at the ground. "I..I don't have any."

"WHAT?" Quickstrike screamed, looking as if he was going to shoot Buzzclaw himself. "How can yer not have weapons?"

"I don't know..I just don't."

To Quickstrike's, and well as Buzzclaw's, surprise, the "backpack" on his back detached itself and hovered next to Buzzclaw. I then spoke, although Quickstrike was certain he couldn't see any mouth. He has a slight echo in his menacing voice. "Yes," the small backpack said, "but he does have me."

"WHAT THE...?" said Buzzclaw and Quickstrike, both at the same time.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I forget to introduce myself? My name is Prometheus," said the creature in a slightly echoing voice.

Quickstrike just stared at the flying creature, too shocked to say anything. After about five seconds, he regained his composure. "What the slag? You don't look like no bot to m-"

"FOOOOORR THHHE ROOOYALLLLTTYYYYY!"

Before Quickstrike could finish his sentence, Inferno came hovering in, shooting both his fireball guns while laughing maniacally.

One of the fireballs hit Cheetor in the chest.

"Ugh-" the Maximal grunted. "Man, not another one. Let's get outta here, they already got the protoform!"

He picked up Rattrap's limp body as he and Blackarachnia beat a hasty retreat.

The Predacons fired for a while until the Maximals were out of sight.

Quickstrike then stood up. "What're you doin' heer?" he asked.

"The Royalty sent me to check on how you were doing," Inferno replied as he landed on the ground. "Have you found the stasis pod?" Inferno had not noticed the new bot, since he was not even waist-high to the giant ant-bot.

Quickstrike pointed toward Buzzclaw.

Inferno looked down at the small bot, then frowned. He quickly straightened the expression of his face to neutral. "Come, I must bring you back to the colony!"

As Inferno flew off, Buzzclaw looked at Quickstrike. "Who's the Royalty?"

"Never mind that." said Dinobot, cutting in. "What is that THING that is flying beside you?"

Buzzclaw looked toward Prometheus again, hovering above the rock. "I don't know. I didn't even know I had it."

Quickstrike transformed to beast mode before Buzzclaw could say anymore. "Whatever it is, we better shew it ta' bossbot."

Dinobot, as well as Buzzclaw, who beckoned Prometheus back onto his back, transformed into beast mode, gathered Waspinator's body and charred head, and headed back toward the Predacon base.

* * *

"And you're saying that creature just flew off of Buzzclaw's back, naming itself Prometheus?" asked Megatron, running a scan on the creature he mentioned while talking to Quickstrike.

"You got et, bossbot."

The computer cut in before Megatron could respond. "Scan complete. Printing out results."

Megatron took the pieces of paper in hand and spent a few seconds glancing at them. "Hmm...allegiance..Predacon..yes....uh-huh.....okay.....Skeletal structure? He's organic?"

Prometheus flew out of the scanning area toward Megatron. "I guess so...my past in blurry. I can't remember much before I came out of the pod."

Megatron nodded, preoccupied with the printout.

He's falling for it, Prometheus thought to himself. Perfect.

Megatron continued scanning through the document. "This is interesting..yes...it says here you have the structure of a parasite.....parasite?" Megatron looked back at the last part. "You can infest other Cybertronians? Interesting.."

"Wait.." Prometheus said hesitantly. "It's sort of coming back now...yes..I can...only if there's a hole in their armor, though."

Megatron smiled. "Hmm....there could be a use for that...yes..I do not know where you came from or what species you are, Prometheus, but I would like to see more of your kind..."

If Prometheus could, he would of smirked. Sooner than you think, Megatron. Sooner than you think.

* * *

Tarantulas was striding past on the hallway when he passed in front of Buzzclaw's new quarters and found him lying on his bed, staring down at the ground.

Hmmm....our friend doesn't seem to like it here, Tarantulas thought. I could use this to my advantage.

Tarantulas strode on into the room. "Is there something wrong, Buzzclaw?" Tarantulas said in an uncharacteristically gentle voice.

"Yeah, there's something wrong." Buzzclaw replied, snorting. "That thing called Prometheus is getting all the attention. I was the Cybertronian that came out of the stasis pod, not him. I don't even know how the slag he got in there."

Tarantulas shook his head and tsk-tsked. "Sounds to me like you're not getting much appreciation here. I heard you don't have any weapons, but that you are genius when it comes to technical work." Tarantulas stopped and looked toward the door. "Do you mind if I close that door before I say anymore? I want to say something to you in private."

"Yeah, whatever." Buzzclaw replied, sighing.

Tarantulas quickly closed the door and continued.

"You see here, Buzzclaw, the truth is, Megatron only cares about brawn and not brains. I, however, have a secret lair a few klicks from here. I care about intelligence. I appreciate your abilites. If you only pledge allegiance to me, I'm sure I could make you my second-in-command."

Buzzclaw's face brightened at the last few words. "Do you mean it? Really?"

"Why, certainly. All I ask is that you keep this a secret, and still act that you are loyal to Megatron whenever you are near him."

Buzzclaw almost shouted with joy. "Sure! I never liked Barney anyway."

"Excellent," Tarantulas chuckled. "I have lots of plans for us, Buzzclaw....lots of plans."

* * *

Rattrap waddled through the hallway in his beast mode into the main room on the Ark, only to see Cheetor lying in a chair near a console, his large cyber-organic tail drooping.

Rattrap walked up to Cheetor and jumped up on the panel. "Eh, what's wrong, kid?" asked Rattrap with a concerned look on his rodent face. "If it's about me, don't worry, kid. My robot eyes will heal in a few days, and I'll be able to see fine. Until then, I'm only stuck in my beast mode."

Cheetor shrugged. "No, it's not that," he said sadly. "It's just-" -here he smirked a little- "-if we had another two of you, we'd have three blind mice." Cheetor laughed at his joke as Rattrap scowled.

"Why you little..." Rattrap screamed. "...if I wasn't in beast mode I'd-"

He was interrupted by a couple of loud explosions rocking the base and the alarm system going off.

"What the slag-"

All the other Maximals besides Silverbolt came running in.

"What happened?" They all asked once.

As if on cue, Silverbolt, who was on guard duty at the time, came limping into the base, badly damaged, with his right wing and arm missing.

"The Predacons-" he gasped, "they're attacking the base again."

Optimal Optimus quickly put Silverbolt in the CR chamber and turned toward the other Maximals.

"Looks we got another fight on our hands, Maximals." he said. "Rhinox, you stay in here and keep the defense systems going. Rattrap- you stay in here for obvious reasons. Everybody else, let's go."

* * *

Megatron turned toward Inferno. "They should be coming out soon," he said as he fired another blast at the entrance. "Get out of here. I don't want them to see you. You know what to do."

Inferno saluted Megatron. "Certainly, Royalty." He put Buzzclaw on his back and beckoned Prometheus to follow him. "For the Royalty!" he shouted as he engaged his turbo engines and landed behind a large rock near the entrance of the base.

He had just ducked behind the rock when all the Maximals besides Silverbolt, Rattrap, and Rhinox ran out and started toward the Predacons, engaging them in battle. Inferno then waited a couple of seconds and tiptoed into the base, without the Maximals even noticing him, followed by Buzzclaw and Prometheus.

He crept into the main room, with Rhinox and Rattrap both with their backs to him, paying attention to the defense system status on the screen.

Inferno then suddenly shot a fireball out of his gun and made a hole through Rhinox's chest, making him slump against the control panel.

Rattrap turned around. "What the slag? You-" Before he could say anymore, another fireball nailed him against the wall, knocking him into stasis lock.

Inferno turned around to Buzzclaw and Prometheus. "Remember the Royalty's plans. Do what you were told."

Buzzclaw then went to the control panel and punched a few buttons. "I've tuned the autoguns to shoot at the Maximals." he said. "They shouldn't be able to easily get in the base now."

Prometheus then flew towards Rhinox and flew into his chest, clawing his way through the Maximals' insides until he found his spark. He quickly yelled, "I'm starting now, so i'll be semi-conscious for a few cycles." He started to feast on Rhinox's spark, giggling to himself as he started. then he went into a kind of stasis lock as his body soaked up the sparks' energy.

Inferno quickly picked up Rhinox's body and Buzzclaw and flew toward the base entrance.

* * *

Cheetor and Optimus were firing at the Predacons when Cheetor suddenly stopped shooting his launcher.

Optimus turned around while still firing. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Cheetor turned to Optimus, shaking slightly. "Bigbot- where's Inferno and that new Predacon?"

Optimus' face twisted into horror as realization dawned on him. "Oh no."

Just then, Inferno flew out of the base, laughing hysterically, carrying Buzzclaw and Rhinox's body.

Optimus' face turned to one of anger. "Fire at him, but don't hit Rhinox!" he commanded the other Maximals."

Many shots did hit him and damaged Inferno, but not seriously. As he flew out of the valley, Megatron yelled for the other Predacons to retreat.

Optimus slumped down as soon as the Predacons were out of sight. "Rhinox...I don't understand. What did they want with him?"

* * *

"Computer, how long until Prometheus has taken over Rhinox's body?" Megatron asked when the Predacons were back at the base.

"0.2 decacycles."

"Blast!" Megatron slammed his chair. "That's almost three earth days! Prometheus didn't tell me it would take that long!" He then calmed down almost as quickly as he had gotten angry. "But no matter. Quickstrike, put him in Terrorsaur's old quarters. The power torch has already been passed... it just will take a little longer to take hold of it...."


	2. Part 2

Prometheus, Part Two  
by Beastbot

0.29 decacycles after Quickstrike had carelessly thrown Rhinox's body into the belated Terrorsaur's quarters, Rhinox's eyes blinked and he stood up. He looked fine, except that the body's optics were no longer glowing red, they were midnight black. The hole made in his body by Inferno's gun was repaired. He slowly came to realization where he was, and looked at his hands, moving them slightly. Rhinox's head looked up and smirked.

"Yes! Infestation was successful!" He whispered in an excited tone. A small fleshy pink tentacle poked its way around inside his head before coming out of his left optic. A small device materialized on the tentacle, and Rhinox, now Prometheus, used one of his robot hands to press a button on the device.

A screen materialized on the left wall of the room, and Unicron's face appeared on the screen.

"It seems you have done well so far. You have called me to tell us it is time to start the Procedure, I hope?" The image of Unicron's face asked.

"'Right on the money,' as the Earthlings say," replied Prometheus.

Unicron then suddenly became suspicious. "You have searched the room for bugs and cameras?"

"Used a CT scan on it. It's safe."

"Excellent. We will proceed."

With that, the screen disappeared, with out even a good-bye. The tentacle went back into Prometheus' optics, and he walked out of the quarters, smirking to himself.

* * *

The Maximals were all in the command center, doing their duties, but mourning over the loss of yet another Maximal. All of a sudden, almost fifty dots appeared and started to blink on the radar, indicating stasis pods.

Rattrap, who was on duty there at the time, ran over to the screen. His mouth almost dropped to the ground.

"Optimus!" he shrieked. "Almost fifty stasis pods located in Secta Gamma!"

Optimus lumbered in and over to the viewing screen almost immediately.

"But- that's impossible!" he said. "All the stasis pods were knocked out of orbit after the explosion of the alien destruction device! Even then, they couldn't have all landed in the same spot! It must be a malfunction in the scanners." Optimus then suddenly calmed down, reassuring himself in his mind that that was all it was. "I'll send Silverbolt to check it out, just in case. I highly doubt the scanners are right, though."

* * *

"Hey, Tarantulas, what does this do?" Buzzclaw asked, about to push a large blue button on a control panel in Tarantulas' secret lair.

"No! Don't touch that!" shouted Tarantulas, running over to where Buzzclaw was and pulling Buzzclaw's hand away from the control panel. Accepting Buzzclaw into his secret ranks had proved to be more trouble than he originally thought. Although the new Predacon was smart, he was curious about everything. Tarantulas couldn't keep his fuzor hands off of the control buttons.

"This button is very important, and should not be touched!" scolded Tarantulas. "It warns me of any incoming-"

Buzzclaw had already started to shift his feet uncomfortably. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I just wanted to help out."

Tarantulas was starting to get annoyed by this wimp, but didn't show it. "Look- I'm sorry. I just want you to be careful. These are very delicate instruments, and I don't want my plan to be messed up- not now."

Buzzclaw looked up. "What is your plan, by the way?"

"I have discovered a large stasis pod cache- almost fifty of them, in fact- in Sector Gamma. To make sure that Megatron couldn't find it, I secretly disconnected his pod signature detector. He shouldn't find out for at least a few more megacycles. However, when I went to Sector Gamma to activate the stasis pods- with an army of Predacons at my command, I could easily overtake Megatron- I found a large yellow force field surrounding the stasis pods. Someone has obviously tampered with these stasis pods and doesn't want us to get to them- yet. My guess is that it's the aliens. They're the only ones capable of doing this."

Buzzclaw pondered for a moment over what Tarantulas had just told him, then looked up.

"Yellow, huh? Did you throw something at the force field to see what happened?"

Tarantulas then suddenly brightened. He had never thought of that. This fuzor definitely had his advantages.

Tarantulas transformed into vehicle mode and beckoned Buzzclaw onto his back.

"Excellent idea, Buzzclaw. Let's go before anyone else discovers this stasis pod cache."

* * *

About thirty cycles later, Tarantulas and Buzzclaw arrived at the small valley in Sector Gamma where the force field was.

_Tarantulas was right,_ Buzzclaw thought. _There must be fifty pods here! How are we going to get to them, though?_

Tarantulas transformed to robot mode and both of the Predacons just stood there for a cycle, just staring at the pure number of stasis pods there and the force field surrounding them. Some large, some small, some badly damaged, some in almost perfect shape. If only these stasis pods could talk, what secrets would they tell?

Then, Tarantulas suddenly remembered what he was supposed to do. He picked up a medium-sized rock nearby and placed a small transmitter device on it. He then threw the rock at the force field. What happened next surprised both of the Predacons.

The rock turned white and then just disappeared. It didn't vaporize, didn't explode. It just disappeared.

Just as Tarantulas was about to walk near the force field and find out what happened, he heard the beating of wings in the distance. He and Buzzclaw quickly ran and hid a couple nanoklicks away under some rocks.

* * *

Silverbolt found the large yellow force field and the cache of stasis pods. To his amazement, the scanners were right. He clicked on his commlink.

"Optimus, this is Silverbolt."

Yes, Silverbolt?

"Our scanners are right. There really are almost fifty stasis pods here. There seems to be some kind of force field around it, though."

The commlink was silent for a few moments.

Well, that's just prime. See if you can find out more about it,then contact me again. I'll be waiting. Optimus out.

Silverbolt then landed and transformed to robot mode. He stared at the force field for a while, as if trying to read an encrypted code.

He then took out one of his wing missles and threw it at the force field. It did the same thing as the rock; it turned white and disappeared.

Silverbolt slowly crept toward the force field, looking at and studying it.

* * *

Megatron slammed the arm of his chair again, making a small panel of metal slide off of a control nearby.

"Yet again you have failed me! You can not even take care of a Maximal on a patrol! A lone Maximal!"

Waspinator and Quickstrike sat cowering a few feet away as Megatron addressed them.

"Wazzpinator sorry. Cat-bot tougher than he looks."

"Yeah, boss-bot. Besides, he was in a better tactical position than we wer."

"Shut up! Just SHUT UP! Get out of my sight!"

Waspinator and Quickstrike hurriedly went away, leaving their leader with a pounding headache.

Megatron then turned around to put the metal panel back on, but he noticed something. A small wire was broken inside the control panel.

"What the..?"

Megatron quickly connected the wires back together, and the computer suddenly started beeping.

He looked up at the main view screen and saw about fifty purple dots, indicating stasis pods, in Sector Gamma.

"Hmm....it seems someone did not want me to find this stasis pod cache. And I'll give myself three guesses as to who that would be..."

Megatron turned on his commlink.

"Inferno."

Yes, Royalty?

"Go to Sector Gamma, Coordinates 4, 5, 9. I have found a large amount of stasis pods there and I want you to tell me if what my scanners are telling me is indeed true."

As you command, Royalty. Inferno out."

Megatron turned off his commlink and started to massage his chin with his index finger.

"This will be interesting, yes..."

* * *

Silverbolt was still investigating the force field when he heard the roar of a turbine engine.

He turned around just in time to see Inferno launch a fireball at his head. He quickly ducked at threw one of his wing missles at Inferno, who quickly dodged it and landed on the ground a few meters away from Silverbolt.

Inferno laughed and pointed his gun at Silverbolt.

"By the Royalty's command, these colonies are claimed for the Predacons!"

Silverbolt took out one of his wing missles in his hand and clenched his fists.

"I don't think so, Predacon!"

Just as the two were about to fire at each other, two lightning bolts came out of the ground nearby without warning, and, before they could react, knocked them both into the force field, causing them both to turn white and disappear.

Tarantulas poked his head out from under some rocks and watched as the two disappeared.

"Hmm..even I did not suspect that.."

* * *

Silverbolt woke up to find himself in a large chamber that looked exactly like the one Optimus had been in right before the alien destruction device was activated.

As his vision cleared some more, he found he was held up in the air by the same robotic tentacles as Optimus was held up by earlier. About five meters away, Inferno was still unconscious held up by more robotic tentacles. A giant gold image of Unicron's head was floating above them. It spoke to Silverbolt, its voice hinting that it was surprised he was online already.

"So far everything has gone according to plan. You must be put back into stasis lock if everything will continue to go that way. You will remember none of this."

As quickly as he woke up, Silverbolt got an electric jolt and was knocked into stasis lock again.

* * *

Silverbolt woke up again with a pounding headache. He looked around and saw that he was next to the yellow force field and stasis pod cache. He remembered he was knocked into the force field by something and then...he couldn't remember anymore.

He tried hard to remember what had happened, but was distracted when he saw his hands. They were white and feathery! He looked at his feet- they looked almost the same, but they were brown from his waist to his knees, and white from his knees to his feet! He looked at his new body some more, and found that he had an entire new structure! A large eagle head was perched on top of his robot head, and large bird wings extended from his stomach and folded back. The ends of the wings were folded back yet again to reveal large missle launchers.

Wait a minute... he thought. Where's my wolf fur or wolf body parts?

"Silverbolt, beast mode!"

The new Silverbolt's gears folded in and twisted around to form a bald eagle beast mode. There was no wolf parts anywhere...

YES! he thought, I'm no longer deformed! I'm no longer some freak with mismatched parts! Well, sure, I once told Optimus it's the inside that counts, but that was just so they wouldn't regard me as a freak!

Silverbolt transformed back into robot mode and was so happy he almost danced. He looked around on the ground for his weapons and found his wing missle, but it was shaped somewhat differently... it was sharper, like a sword. He also found a small rock with a transmitter on it, but was distracted when he heard a loud voice.

"FOR THE ROYALTY!"

Silverbolt turned around to see a large metallic fire ant staring at him.

"Inferno, terrorize!"

Inferno transformed into a completely new robot as well. His face looked the same, but its color was purple and he had two large horns sticking out of it. His blue chest carapace connected his long arms with drills on their ends to his skinny purple and red legs. His back was covered by a large hard shell. It looked like Inferno has just become a transmetal.

Inferno laughed as he shot a drill from his arm. Silverbolt dodged it as it exploded behind him, and another drill popped up from the Predacon's arm to replace it.

Inferno's back shell then folded into his sides to reveal four small spiky turbines, which then started rotating, propelling him into the air. His horns then started to emit a high screeching sound, building up electricity in themselves and launching it in a huge ball at Silverbolt.

Silverbolt just barely dodged it, and got blown away a few feet because of the force of the impact. He launched some missles from his wings at Inferno, but only one hit him, barely denting him. Silverbolt ran away as fast as he could as Inferno, still laughing, launched electricity balls and exploding drills at Silverbolt.

Primus, the Maximal thought, how much firepower can Inferno throw at me?

A few cycles later, after much dodging and running, Inferno reloaded one of his drill missles with a purple-colored, instead of a red-colored, drill. He shot it at Silverbolt, and in midair, it split to reveal a long metal needle. Unable to dodge it in time, it plunged into Silverbolt, sending a cybervirus running through his circuits. He gasped for air before he collapsed in a heap.

Just as Inferno was about to finish off Silverbolt, he got hit in the back by a energy ball. He was flung onto the ground, and looked up in the sky to see Optimal Optimus in flight mode.

"Oh, no...the Royalty will not be pleased! Vehicle mode!"

Inferno transformed into his metallic fire ant mode, and then his six robotic legs lifted up to reveal wheels, and his head lifted up to reveal two large drills. He immediately drilled underground, collapsing the tunnel behind him.

Optimus landed on the ground soon afterwards, transforming to robot mode, and ran over to Silverbolt.

"S..Silverbolt? Is that you? Silverbolt?!"

* * *

After Inferno, who had found his way back to base, had told Megatron his ncomplete story about how he became a transmetal, Megatron sat thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.

"And this is all you know?"

"Yes, Royalty."

"I wonder....do you have any fire weapons?"

"Well, no, Royalty, but.."

"Then why would you need a name like Inferno?"

"Well, Royalty, I.."

"Change it. What kind of impression would we make on the Maximals if we had a Predacon named Inferno without any fire weapons?"

"Royalty, I.."

"How about Scavenger? Yes, that sounds like a suiting name. Scavenger it is."

"As you command, Royalty."

Inferno, newly named Scavenger, quickly shut down for a few seconds as his internal computers inputed his new name.

A short while later, he came online again.

"Scavenger at your service, Royalty," he said, taking a deep bow.

* * *

Silverbolt stood looking at his face in the mirror in his personal quarters, running his hands over it.

After Optimus had put Silverbolt in the CR chamber and repaired him, he wanted an explanation. Silverbolt told him as much as he could, but Optimus still thought he was hiding something. Trouble was, Silverbolt honestly couldn't remember anything else, but he knew somehow that something had happened. He was sure of it...

His attention turned to his new face. It had changed competely, now almost completely white except for his black eyes. He had no wolf ears anymore, and his wolf mouth was replaced by a small cover, like Optimus Prime's mouth.

He then looked at his body and wings. He was confused. When he had examined his wings closer, he had found a lot of levers and buttons that didn't appear to do anything in either of his modes.

It was as if he was part of something....bigger....


End file.
